


Shartok's Rescue

by DawnbreakerDystopia



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Fallen | Eliksni, Other, Rescue, Rescue Missions, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-19 08:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22308379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DawnbreakerDystopia/pseuds/DawnbreakerDystopia
Summary: Gadrax, betrayer of House Domination by rebirth into a Guardian, comes across his old kell, Shartok, in the midst of deadly combat. Sworn to protect every innocent being in the universe, Gadrax chooses to save Shartok. However, the kell's pride interrupts this rescue.
Kudos: 7





	Shartok's Rescue

“Follow my lead!” Gadrax called, fire swarming beneath his ship. He dragged Shartok, Kell of Domination, along the dock, but the pull did not move him.

Shartok narrowed his gaze to the Eliksni, barely hanging onto his hand while dangling into the nothing of space below. “You _dare_ command me, Dreg?!”

“I can live again but you will not!! LET GO AND YOU _DIE_!!!” Gadrax screamed.

Shartok hissed lowly. “I have lived long, traitor. There is nothing but _disgrace_ in being saved by the likes of you!”

“IF YOU EMBRACED DEATH TRULY YOU’D HAVE LET GO BY NOW!! GRAB MY _FUCKING_ HAND!!!”

Shartok’s eyes widened and his mandibles fell open.

Gadrax snarled. “CLEARLY YOU AREN’T WILLING TO DIE OR YOU’D BE FALLING INTO THAT TRAVELER-FORSAKEN BLACK NOTHING BY NOW!! _COME WITH ME_!!!!!”

Shartok gazed below himself to the abyss of stars, ships swarming rapidly between each one, and he gulped. Slowly did he switch the gaze to Gadrax, examining the Titan mark swaying in the gusting wind–glistening before the Traveller’s light. Then, he looked to his own hands and body, swaying within the wind, reaching into the nothing of space, took one deep breath, and reached up for Gadrax who bent down and grabbed every hand with his own.

Gadrax yanked the Kell onto to the ship dock and pulled the door open with one hand, then let Shartok go and slipped inside.

Shartok stood motionless outside the door.

Turning around, Gadrax groaned and snarled at the Kell once more. “Lord Shartok! _Do you want to die_?!”

“Death is honor amongst the Fallen. Betrayal is nothing but dishonor, and I’d rather meet a worthy end with dignity than fall in disgrace,” Shartok told. He grasped handles on either side of the door to balance himself, then turned around to face the outreaches of space. “I cannot traverse the galaxy with a Guardian. I have no need to follow the commands of a Dreg, for you are but scum of the galaxy, and even further beneath that as the most wanted traitor of Fallen-kind.”

“THEN _FALL_!” spat Gadrax. “LET YOUR PEOPLE MOURN YOU FOR ETERNITY!” His eyes narrowed as he took heavy breaths, staring the Kell directly down. “I once thought you to be a noble man–a hero! But now I see you’re nothing more than a bastard swallowed by his own pride! If you truly care about being a leader for your people you’ll come with me and live long enough to continue leading them!! What is a kingdom of millions to _one moment’s defiance_ of a worn-out code?” Gadrax promptly turned his back to Shartok and stomped down into the cockpit, then sat in the pilot’s chair, door still open.

Shartok’s mandibles spread open as he stood silent, eyes slowly yet solemnly closing. Taking a deep breath, he forlornly gazed beneath himself to the swarming ships now rising closer to Gadrax’s ship, their firing grazing its sides, then he turned toward the cockpit and stepped inside, pulling the doors shut.

“Sit down so we can take off,” Gadrax said, not looking to the Kell. He pointed to an empty seat beside his own.

Slumping forward with slow, ancient steps, Shartok made his way cautiously toward the seat and sat within it, strapping himself inside as he glanced to the Guardian.

Gadrax yanked the steering handles downward and launched the ship forward, furthering both Eliksni from the firing and madness inbound. He did not look to the Kell, but simply focused ahead while navigating through debris, rocks, and stars.

Shartok glanced away from the Dreg and closed his eyes. “Why would you save me?” he asked.

“Because it’s what Guardians do.”

“But you have just as much reason to let me die, here and now, as I do you.”

“Guardians don’t let innocent people die,” said Gadrax. “We live to protect the citizens of the galaxy.”

Shartok shook his head, hanging low as he released a deep, low sigh. “I am far from innocent, Dreg. And with my actions I shall have more crime upon my hands than is worth living for.”

“Then consider it a courtesy,” said Gadrax. He glanced toward the Kell. “It’s… only right for a Dreg to protect his leaders.”

Shartok sneered and scoffed. “You are _not_ of our people!”

“Maybe not. But then I place it back on Guardian ideology,” Gadrax argued. “Do you see the predicament here?” He sighed and returned his eyes to the stars ahead. “It was the right thing to save you in the end, milord. I wouldn’t let you die without trying to save you first because that’s just wrong. It’s called _having a conscience_.”

Shartok sneered once more, but otherwise remained silent. Turning away from the Dreg, the Kell nodded once and crossed his arms. “You have changed far beyond what anyone knows, Dreg,” he said. “I have learned much in my time, but the greatest is that the different ones–the _revolutionaries_ –the _defiers_ –are the only reason a future can happen and become reality, whether for better or worse. Judgment through experience is the only true way to gauge which way it shall unfold. Yet somehow… I feel that the actions you take will create a great one.”

Gadrax pressed his mandibles together for a moment, shoulders against his cheeks, then released everything. “Then I won’t let the future fail,” he said. “If it truly depends on people like me, I’ll be a beacon for everyone to follow.”

“You already are,” said Shartok blankly. He raised one arm and pointed to Dexo who floated beside Gadrax, still turning himself away from both. “Is your Ghost not the Light which you carry? And are you not your Light? Shine across galaxies, Dreg. But beware the many who will attempt to extinguish your shine.”

Nodding once, Gadrax cautiously turned to Shartok. “Many have tried before. I’m surprised you haven’t yet.”

Shartok turned to meet Gadrax’s eyes. “A beacon cannot die without grace. If there is one thing I have learned, it is the importance of a glorious end, and crushing you would not be one, for I know when I have been bested.”

Neither Eliksni spoke again from this point. Not for many hours, at least.

——————–

Navigating through various debris, Gadrax looked to the Kell after a long while. “I’ll take you to wherever your armies have convened,” he said. “Let’s make it quick, though. Ikora is probably wondering where I’ve gone.”

Sighing, Shartok nodded. “Third sector of Saturn,” he told. “The largest moon within that area is where I have sent the survivors.”

Pulling the steering handles harshly toward himself, Gadrax’s ship warped as the infinity of space tunneled around it, and suddenly he released them, ship slowing as Saturn appeared ahead, spanning the entire navigational view with moons orbiting within just meters. Gadrax shifted the ship rightward, and between the many moons he navigated toward one far larger in width than those surrounding it.

“I will never fully understand your intentions,” said Shartok solemnly. “But perhaps… that is because… some things are not meant to be understood.”

Dexo, hovering above Gadrax’s left shoulder, nodded. “That makes sense. And being the wisest of Fallen, a Kell, I agree. And I never thought I’d agree with a Fallen.”

Gadrax hissed at his Ghost. “You’ve agreed with me plenty of times!”

“Ok, but you’re different,” Dexo said. “Anyway, I’m preparing the area for transmat.”

Gadrax hovered the ship directly above the wide moon and pressed one button on the dashboard. Transmat bursting alight with golden beams, he looked to Shartok and pointed to it. “It’s time to leave,” he said bluntly.

Rising slowly, pushing all four arms off the armrests, Shartok stood upright and slumped toward the transmat, not looking to Gadrax. In silence, he carefully made his way toward the transmat, then paused with one foot above the light. “I owe you nothing for this, Dreg, as you have betrayed and killed your former leader, then the order of Fallen society,” said Shartok. “And now you have convinced me to follow in your crooked footsteps and tarnished my reputation! My mercy in letting you go and saying nothing to the other Kells, to my commanders or follower, is my payment, however, for… like you…” The Kell hung his head low, clacking his mandibles softly. “I feel the need to do the right thing…”

Gadrax gave one nod. “Then farewell,” he said.

“Farewell.” Shartok walked onto the transmat and the glow surrounded him, and he disappeared entirely.

Transmat light disappearing, Gadrax pushed the steering handles forward and turned the ship away from Saturn, then disappeared into the distant stars, silent.


End file.
